Spurs-Warriors Preview

By ANTONIO GONZALEZPosted May 11 2013 7:22PM

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) The San Antonio Spurs are suddenly the team with a relaxed point guard who can dominate, and the Golden State Warriors are back to worrying about theirs.

Tony Parker cracked jokes and declared he'd "definitely" start before he rested face down on a table for a massage on his bruised left calf during San Antonio's practice at the University of San Francisco on Saturday. Stephen Curry never surfaced during the portion of Golden State's light shootaround open to reporters at the team's downtown Oakland headquarters, going through treatment on his nagging left ankle behind closed doors.

The Warriors said X-rays on Curry's ankle were negative and no MRI exam is scheduled. Curry told a pool reporter in the afternoon that he's hopeful to play - though remained murky about how much or how well - and is officially a game-time decision for Sunday's critical Game 4 tilt of the Western Conference semifinals.

The Spurs lead the best-of-seven series 2-1.

"You never really know how it's going to feel the next day," Curry said. "You just keep with the treatment. Same ol' story. I have the same answers."

Just as this season began with questions about his troublesome ankles, the biggest game of Curry's career is being overshadowed by questions about his durability.

Curry came off a curl and his left ankle - which he sprained in Game 2 in the first round against Denver but seemed to finally be back to full strength - landed awkwardly when he planted his feet to receive the ball with a little less than five minutes remaining. Curry hobbled around but stayed in the game, with nervous chants of "Curry! Curry!" breaking out among the yellow-shirt wearing sellout crowd of 19,596.

Curry limped out of the locker room and walked down a long hallway with his left ankle - not the twice surgically repaired right ankle that has sidelined him in past seasons - wrapped in black tape. Warriors coach Mark Jackson said Curry appeared in better spirits when the two passed each other at an intersection driving to practice in the morning and Curry waved and honked his car horn.

"I've been there where I've put my head down, didn't want to talk to my coach," Jackson said.

The tight turnaround between games likely won't help Curry's cause. Sunday's game starts at 12:30 p.m. local time, giving him about 38 hours from the end of Friday night's game to recover.

Curry said he's not planning on receiving another anti-inflammatory injection to help ease the pain, which he did after Game 2 and before Game 3 against Denver for the first time in his career, because "you don't want to get into that kind of habit."

"I'm hoping my body responds on its own enough to eliminate that from the conversation," he said.

The setback for San Antonio's All-Star point guard seems far less severe.

Warriors center Andrew Bogut inadvertently kicked Parker's calf in the fourth quarter. Parker came out of the game briefly, and trainers wrapped his leg as he sat on the bench.

Parker said the bruise "feels like a baseball in my calf" and limited his ability to elevate on shots when he returned. Doctors determined no X-rays were necessary, and he planned to spend the off day trying to loosen up the muscle, including working out in a pool.

"I just can't see myself not playing," said Parker, who scored 25 of his 32 points in the first half of San Antonio's 102-92 win Friday night at Oracle Arena to regain home-court advantage. "I'll definitely play."

So much about this Western Conference semifinal has flip-flopped, and both sides remained cautious knowing it easily could again.

The Warriors led for 95 of 106 minutes in the first two games, leaving San Antonio with a disappointing split after blowing a 16-point lead in the final four minutes of Game 1 to lose in double overtime. Curry and backcourt teammate Klay Thompson took turns with scintillating shooting displays, then both went cold in Game 3 for the first time.

San Antonio outshot Golden State 50.6 to 39.3 percent by curbing Curry and Thompson on the perimeter, though the Spurs didn't feel like they defended any differently.

"There's no answer to anything like that," Popovich said. "You just play the game. Some nights you shoot it better than other nights. They didn't shoot it as well as they did, and we shot better. If there was a formula for that, everybody would be shooting 50 of 60 percent every night."

If Curry can't play or is limited, that surely wouldn't bode well for Golden State's chances of regain its streak shooting stroke.

Jarrett Jack would receive more minutes, but the savvy veteran hardly commands as much attention as Curry, who made an NBA-record 272 3-pointers in the regular season. The Warriors went 2-2 without Curry this season, including a 95-88 loss at San Antonio on Jan. 18, when Jack scored 20 points as the starter.

Both teams are prepared to make major adjustments if Curry or Parker is limited. Each also hopes that doesn't happen, knowing the style of the game would be entirely different.

"It probably wouldn't be as fun of a game, honestly," Thompson said. "They are two of the most entertaining guards to watch in the NBA."

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Antonio Gonzalez can be reached at: www.twitter.com/agonzalezAP

Copyright 2013 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited

Warriors beat Spurs 97-87 in OT, even series 2-2

By ANTONIO GONZALEZPosted May 12 2013 11:02PM

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) His spirits down, his left ankle limp and his team's season hanging in the balance, Stephen Curry wondered whether he could recover for the biggest game of his career until a text message popped up on his phone around 2 a.m. Saturday.

Curry called back his mother, Sonya, and vented his frustrations about his latest - and most inopportune - injury setback. Finally, she spoke up to calm his concerns.

Curry scored 22 points to go with six rebounds and four assists on a bum ankle, rallying the Golden State Warriors past the San Antonio Spurs 97-87 in overtime Sunday to even the Western Conference semifinal at two games apiece.

"It seems like every time you get on a roll and feel somewhat healthy there's a setback," said Curry, who shot 7 of 15 from the floor, including 5 of 10 from 3-point range. "And it just tests you. It changes your routine. It changes your outlook on the game, your preparation. You've got to deal with the injury and the adjustments you're making as a team."

Game 5 is Tuesday in San Antonio.

Curry and the Warriors overcame the obstacles with contributions from all over.

Rookie Harrison Barnes had a career-high 26 points and 10 rebounds, Jarrett Jack added 24 points in reserve and Andrew Bogut grabbed 18 rebounds to help Golden State erase an eight-point deficit in the final five minutes of regulation. The Warriors scored the first nine points of overtime to whip the yellow-shirt wearing crowd of 19,596 into a frenzy and give this topsy-turvy series yet another twist.

Even Warriors coach Mark Jackson doubted whether Curry could play, especially after his star point guard took an anti-inflammatory injection in the morning to ease the soreness in his sprained ankle and still had trouble getting loose. Jackson cornered Curry outside the chapel service at the arena to see how he felt.

"He said, `I'm going to give you what I got, coach.' That's not the language he speaks. I knew right away that he was not 100 percent," said Jackson, who conferred with general manager Bob Myers in his office before letting Curry play. "Once again, it's that same spirit flowing through that locker room that refuses to quit."

Even for all of the theater Curry provided, the Spurs seized control of a sloppy slugfest at the start until going cold shooting when it mattered most.

Tony Parker, wearing a black sleeve around his bruised left calf, poured in 17 points on 6-of-17 shooting but never broke free the way he did in scoring 32 points the previous contest, saying the injury limited his ability to elevate. Manu Ginobili had 21 points and Tim Duncan added 19 points and 15 rebounds as the Spurs ran out of steam in the end.

"We put ourselves in a position to win the game and it's frustrating because we feel like we gave it away," Duncan said.

Golden State outshot San Antonio 38 to 35.5 percent. The Warriors also outrebounded the Spurs 65-51.

"They did a good job in overtime. Just as simple as that," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

Ginobili hit a mid-range jumper and a 3-pointer, and Kawhi Leonard put back a rebound for an easy layup to put the Spurs ahead 80-72 with 4:49 remaining in the fourth quarter. With the series slipping away from the Warriors, their home sellout crowd sat down and fell silent for one of the few times in the fourth quarter all postseason.

Jack hit three jumpers and Klay Thompson added another to pull the Warriors even with less than a minute to play in regulation. After Parker provided a jumper to put the Spurs ahead 84-82, Thompson dribbled to his right and banked in the tying shot over Leonard with 30 seconds left.

Both teams missed shots to win in regulation, and the Warriors turned the extra session into a runaway.

Curry capped the overtime spurt with a floating layup, drawing a foul on Duncan to begin a three-point play that gave Golden State a 93-84 lead. San Antonio missed its first nine shots - and two free throws by Danny Green - to start overtime until Green's corner 3 with 1:29 remaining.

By then, it was too late - Curry had taken control again.

"He's a player that you may see him playing on one leg, one arm, and you got to guard him," Ginobili said. "So you got to respect him. He can really go off at any time."

The upstart Warriors are once again on the brink of something big.

The franchise hadn't won two games beyond the first round since 1977, when it pulled even with the Lakers in the conference semifinals through four games before losing in seven. This time, all the odds seemed against them again.

The tight turnaround from Friday night's game to the early afternoon start Sunday surely didn't help Curry's cause.

Curry clearly favored his left ankle and never showed any burst off the dribble, often getting face-guarded by Spurs defenders and taken out of the offense. Some of his teammates even wondered whether he'd respond.

"Watching him warm up, I said, `Man, there's no way this kid is playing,"' Jack said. "Then watching him run around on one leg, he looked like Isiah Thomas against the Lakers in the finals, man. The performance he put on down the stretch, making plays, making shots, defensively, I sat back and was honestly in awe."

With Curry quieted on the perimeter early and Bogut benched in foul trouble most of the first half, the Warriors missed 13 straight shots and went scoreless for 7:10. The Spurs scored 14 unanswered points during that spurt, Ginobili made his first four 3s and the Spurs later took a 41-30 lead midway through the second quarter on Green's put-back dunk.

The Warriors had been 0-3 when trailing after three quarters this postseason until Curry and company came back.

Curry hadn't checked in with his family when he spoke to reporters while soaking his feet in a bucket of ice in the locker room afterward. But he knew they were all watching from North Carolina with his brother, Seth, who was graduating from Duke.

"It was," he said, "a big day for the Currys."

NOTES: Warriors All-Star F David Lee, who had five rebounds in a little less than 8 minutes, said surgery is "more than likely" on his torn right hip flexor after the season but plans to keep playing sparingly in the playoffs. Lee, hurt in Game 1 in the first round against Denver, had had been uncertain whether a procedure would be necessary. ... The Warriors had never hosted an overtime playoff game in the Bay Area. ... It was the most points Ginobili had scored since he had 21 against New Orleans on Jan. 7. ... Game 6 is Thursday in Oakland and Game 7, if necessary, would be in San Antonio on Sunday.

Copyright 2013 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited

Notebook: Warriors 97, Spurs 87 (OT)

THE FACTS: Harrison Barnes had a career-high 26 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter and overtime, as the Golden State Warriors came back from eight points down in the final five minutes to beat the San Antonio Spurs 97-87 Sunday in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal, knotting the series at 2-2.

Barnes, who added 10 rebounds, had two free throws and a shot-clock-beating pull-up jumper as the Warriors scored the first nine points of overtime to take control and ensure Oracle Arena will see at least one more postseason contest.

Jarrett Jack added 24 points, seven rebounds and four assists, although he couldn't knock down an 18-foot pull-up which would have won the game at the final buzzer in regulation.

Stephen Curry, playing despite clearly being less than 100 percent on the left ankle he re-sprained in the fourth quarter of Game 3 Friday, had 22 points. Andrew Bogut overcame early foul trouble to grab 18 rebounds, his fifth straight postseason game in double figures.

Manu Ginobili led San Antonio with 21 points, his best performance of the 2013 postseason, but missed a 3-pointer with 20.9 seconds left in regulation that might have won the game for the Spurs.

QUOTABLE: "This team will not lay down. This team will not quit. It looked dark. It looked awfully dark, but we found a way to get stops and make plays." -- Warriors coach Mark Jackson.

THE STAT: The Spurs were on the verge of taking a 3-1 series lead back to San Antonio, but their offense cratered in the final 4:49 of regulation and stayed dead in overtime, going 2-for-18 over that stretch, 1-for-8 on 3-pointers. Golden State, the youngest team left in the playoffs, outscored the four-time NBA champions 25-7 in that timeframe to take the win.

TURNING POINT: Though Curry started and even hit two 3-pointers during an 11-6 burst to open the game, it quickly become apparent that he was limited in his mobility despite a pre-game anti-inflammatory shot his still-healing left ankle. Nevertheless, after resting more than normal in the first half, Curry saw nearly 24 minutes of action after intermission and scored 16 points.

QUOTABLE II: "Watching him warm up, I said, 'Man, there's no way this kid is playing. Watching him run around on one leg, he looked like Isiah Thomas against the Lakers in the [1988 NBA] Finals, man. The performance he put on down the stretch, making plays, making shots, defensively. I sat back and was honestly in awe." -- Jack, on Curry.

HOT: Jack was much maligned by Warrior fans after rough skid in the final minutes of Game 3. No doubt they were loving him as he scored on three consecutive isolation plays to help claw the Warriors back from an 80-72 deficit with 4:49 remaining. In all, Jack finished 9-for-16 after shooting 41.2 percent through three games against San Antonio.

NOT: San Antonio was held to 35.5 percent shooting, their worst mark of the series and lowest in a postseason game since a 32.1 mark on April 23, 2009, in an 88-67 loss to Dallas during Game 3 of the Mavericks' eventual first-round series win.

QUOTABLE III: "In overtime, we just stopped scoring. We kept running the same plays, our usual stuff, and it just didn't fall. They made every shot in overtime. In a game that it so close and so tight, that ends up being the difference. . . . What's disappointing is, we had them were we wanted. We blew it."-- Ginobili.

ROOKIE WATCH: Barnes surpassed his regular-season best of 21 points, although it took him 26 shots to do it. The Warriors had to turn the No. 7 overall selection loose because of Curry's injury woes and the fact that San Antonio's defense had completely neutralized Klay Thompson, who finished with 10 points in 51 minutes of action.

NOTABLE: The Warriors (38 percent from the field) hadn't won a game shooting under 40 percent since beating Chicago on May 14, 1975 to clinch Game 7 of the Western Conference finals. . . . Golden State had 18 turnovers, but none after the 36.9-second mark of the third quarter. . . . The Warriors have outrebounded the Spurs in all four games, including by a 65-51 count Sunday. . . . Tim Duncan had a quiet 19 points and 15 boards for his 142nd career playoff double-double. He's tied with Shaquille O'Neal for the third most in NBA history; they trail only Wilt Chamberlain (143) and Magic Johnson (157).